


Head in the Clouds

by FictionalKnight (Northern_Star)



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-20
Updated: 2008-11-20
Packaged: 2017-10-18 20:30:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/192989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northern_Star/pseuds/FictionalKnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is for <a href="http://saavikam77.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://saavikam77.livejournal.com/"><b>saavikam77</b></a>, who asked for fic on her holiday wish list. She gave me "clouds" as a prompt. :)</p>
    </blockquote>





	Head in the Clouds

**Author's Note:**

> This is for [](http://saavikam77.livejournal.com/profile)[**saavikam77**](http://saavikam77.livejournal.com/), who asked for fic on her holiday wish list. She gave me "clouds" as a prompt. :)

Bruce has already gone through every room in his home once, looking for Clark. He hasn't found him anywhere. He knows that Clark wouldn't have left without saying goodbye - even if Superman had been called off on an emergency - but still, he's nowhere to be found.

Clark isn't in the Manor, or down in the Batcave, either - Bruce checked the security cams, even though he's well aware that Clark would never have wandered off to the Batcave unless Batman was working there. And Batman isn't down in the cave working right now, because he's up here, looking for his partner, who's apparently vanished into thin air. Somehow.

Bruce has no real reason to be looking for Clark. Originally, he had a question to ask him, but he's long forgotten what that was - it probably wasn't important anyway. Now, he's just trying to find him because... well, because he can't. And the detective in him can't stand to find himself face to face with a mystery that he cannot solve. A puzzle that he can't put together. Clark has to be _somewhere_. And Bruce is now more than determined to find him.

After having gone from the cellar all the way to the attic a second time, Bruce finally ventures outside to the grounds. There's a huge garden behind the Manor, where he hardly ever goes. Most of what he knows about it is that Alfred grows herbs there, as well as some exotic variety of orchids that Bruce isn't interested in very much - all he remembers is what his accountant has told him about them: their market price is astronomical.

Bruce starts walking towards the gazebo at the far end of the garden, still hoping to find the place where Clark has disappeared to. Clark isn't in the gazebo, but when Bruce walks under its shingled roof, he finally catches sight of his elusive lover, lying under a tree, his hands clasped under his head, looking up at the afternoon sky. He's probably been right there all along, Bruce guesses, staring up at something no one else can see. Something that's not really there at all.

And while Bruce sees Clark Kent before him, lying in the lush green grass, he knows that in this instance, he's really looking at Kal-El.

Kal-El of Krypton, last survivor of a long-forgotten people, is staring up at the sky, past the clouds and the planets, and quite probably right out of the Milky Way, at some distant little spot somewhere in the universe, light-years away.

A little spot where his home planet should be.

A little spot where his home planet would _still_ be, if it hadn't been blown to pieces.

For a moment Bruce stays hidden in the gazebo, not wanting to disturb his lover's quiet contemplation. His heart breaks a little bit for the man. In as much as the bat has a heart that can feel such things, anyway.

Bruce understands his pain in a certain way. He's lost his parents too, after all. And when you're eight, losing your parents is about exactly the same as seeing the universe shattered into tiny little bits.

But there is so much that Bruce really cannot understand, that he will never truly be able to. It's not simply because he can't really feel things just as deeply as someone like Clark can - and does - but rather because he cannot relate; he has no point of reference.

Clark - Kal-El - has no memories of his home, of his parents, of his people. What he longs for, what he misses, is something he's never really known, doesn't remember that he's ever had, and can never have again. And as much as Bruce can understand this, intellectually, he doesn't really know how it feels. Which means he doesn't know what to say, and has even less of an idea how to comfort his lover - not that Bruce really knows how to cheer anyone up to begin with... but in this case, he's more than lost.

He doesn't really know where the idea comes from, but Bruce is suddenly overcome with an urge to be close to Clark, to lie next to him, an arm thrown over his chest, and his head on his broad shoulder. He doesn't know quite why he feels this way, only that he does, and he's not certain if it's stemmed from a desire to make Clark feel better - or because he's somehow feeling left out and he wants to be part of this moment; to share it with the man he shares everything else with.

Bruce walks over to where Clark lays in the grass under an old maple tree. Clark doesn't move an inch, barely even stirs at all when Bruce joins him.

"Do you know where it was supposed to be?" Bruce asks after a moment, as he, too, looks to the sky above.

Clark turns his head and looks at him, frowning slightly. "Where what's supposed to be?" he asks.

"Krypton."

"Oh." Clark smiles and, with a finger, he points to the west. "Somewhere over there, I think. Why do you ask?"

It's Bruce's turn to frown now. "Wasn't that what you've been staring at all this time? I thought...?"

"Ah, no, I was just staring at the clouds." Clark's cheeks take on a certain shade of pink, as if he's been caught doing something mildly embarrassing. Grinning, he points to the sky again and says, "Look... doesn't that one look like a rabbit eating a carrot?"

Bruce looks from Clark's finger all the way down his arm and to his face, eyes narrow, somewhat displeased. "You're such a dork," he says. He's not laughing.

Clark protests immediately. "Hey!"

"Well you are!" Bruce retorts. "Here I was thinking you felt... I don't know, homesick, perhaps? I was even starting to feel sorry for you."

Clark blinks. "You did?"

Bruce responds with only a glare, in a very _'you heard me, so don't try and make me repeat this'_ kind of way.

"Of course you did," Clark says, unable to repress a chuckle.

"And you're a dork," Bruce states very simply.

Clark reaches for the other man's hand, brings it to his lips and brushes a feather-light kiss on his knuckles. "Admit it," he says, "you love me just like that."

"No." Bruce shakes his head, and tries to hide the very faint smile that's tugging at his lips. "I love you in spite of the fact that you're -" he makes a vague gesture "- you're obviously a little deranged."

"Hey look," Clark says, suddenly sounding very excited. He points to the sky again. "Doesn't that cloud over there look like a giant bat?"

> End.  



End file.
